The Christmas Cookies Live On...and On

Christmas is over, and I mean over. The drive home now is dull, there are no inflatable Santas bobbing on front lawns, no cheery lights on porches and trees. Even my tree is nearly put away. The only vestige of Christmas that remains is the cookies. We still have Christmas cookies. Lots of them.

Thanks to Chuck baking what appears to be close to 20 dozen chocolate chip cherry cookies, and everyone brought batches over, too. I also have a few mocha squiggles, and some fruitcake stashed, too.  Since we're pretty much off the sugar wagon now, these cookies may very well still be hanging around by the 4th of July. God help us. As it is, they are well past their prime now, I'll probably be able to skip them across the duck pond by July. I may be stuck with these things, and since I am trying to lose a few, along with probably 20 million of my fellow Americans, eating them isn't an option.

The problem is, right after Christmas, everyone is loaded up, so no one wants to take any off your hands. Then, once January rolls in, everyone is on a diet. In this house, there is no even considering tossing them out, or there will be hell to pay.There is no winning the leftover cookie war except to eat them...or take them to work. Hope the crew at the store is hungry. Otherwise these cookies may just live on, and on...on my hips.

Fee, Fie, Foe, Friday: 362 Dieting Days Before Christmas

Every year, I swear I won't start mainstreaming Christmas cookies a week before Christmas. Every year, in spite of my best intentions, I start shoveling them down with abandon. And then, the morning after Christmas I swear the DIET STARTS AGAIN when I step off the scale. Until nightfall and there are still cookies begging to be eaten lurking in my kitchen. Like these.

They look so lonesome. I must eat them.

I can pass up cake, I can pass up pie, but not cookies. I am married to The Cookie Man. He only makes chocolate chip cookies, but he also makes, minimally 12 dozen, and usually double that. Add to it those I make, those the girls make and those brought by guests, and maybe you can see my dilemma. There are a lot of really good cookies around, and since my family and friends are not slouches when it comes to baking, there is no tossing them out. they get eaten, and many of them by me.

This morning's weigh-in was not pretty. I am two pounds heavier than I was at Thanksgiving. It's also four weeks closer to swimsuit season. I have excuses: I'm tired and need quick energy since I work retail, and the early dark and short daylight hours are depressing so I eat ...cookies. None of it matters when I step on the scale on a cold, dark morning. It'sd the damn cookies. I refuse to take responsibility for any of it.

In a week or so they'll be gone, and on New Year's day, I will join millions of my fellow Americans in resolving to lose a few pounds. Again.

Luckily, there are another 362 dieting days before Christmas 2013.

Fee, Fie, Foe, Friday: The Christmas Cookie Wars

The cookie books are a just small part of the cookie repertoire:
there are boxes of cards, baking books, scribbled notes...
and my cookie memory.

It appears that my Mocha Two-Tones are vying for first place with Aunt Lillian's Kourabeides. I didn't make them last year. That could give them an edge. Happens every year. It's a regular cookie slugfest. I have to decide what kind of cookies I'm going to bake this year. Pizzelles are totally out of the running, since my friend John is planning to make off with my pizzelle iron soon. They aren't usually a top contender anyway because I find them tedious and time consuming. Hope he shares. Granted, this cookie competition is all in my head, but since my baking time is limited, I have to get it down to the top three. When I had more leisure time at Christmas, and when I was catering and teaching, it was nothing to make a dozen different types of sweet treat. No problem. Chuck does bake cookies each year: chocolate chip and more chocolate chip. But that doesn't make it Christmas for me. I need variety. My cookie tray is a crucial part of our family Christmas.

I've been swooning over some salted caramel-topped shortbread I saw on a blog recently, and my set of linzer cutters was at the top of my baking box when I was searching for muffin papers last week. Such a decision. A first world problem, I need to remind myself how lucky I am to have such simple choices to make.